The Walk
by Ina-chanz
Summary: <html><head></head>Eh, not the best title ever. Live with it. Hinata is taking a "little walk" in the forest one day when she suddenly confronts a stranger on the road. What can he do to lighten up the little Hyuuga's spirits? Pre-Shippuden. One-shot.</html>


**A/N: I suppose Hinata and Deidara are 14 and 17 in this (it's around the middlish of the end of Naruto and pre-Shippuden...or something ^^" Also, well, remember in part 1 when Itachi and Kisame came to Konoha without anyone noticing while wearing Akatsuki cloaks in the wide open like that? I've decided to keep it that way, since this takes place sort of early, so no one's really that aware of the Akatsuki just yet. They're still secretive, okay? Anyway, enjoy.**

**Warning: As usual, there may be grammar/spelling mistakes here and there. If there is, I'm sorry about that X( And sorry if anyone's too OOC (I usually succeed at that in most of my stories anyway...)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (but one day I will, mwahahaha-cough-)**

-:|:-

Hinata trekked through the forest for the third time in a row that week. She was just walking, although every now and then the extremely tiny, hardly noticeable "determined-brave" self of hers kept yelling at her quietly to be a true ninja and run her whole "walk", despite the fact that she was no long distance runner. Hinata would listen sometimes (since she was sweet enough to pay attention even to what the things that didn't exist had to say), but, as mentioned, she tired easily. She wiped her forehead, brushing off her short dark bangs from it as she did. Since last year, Hinata had started to let her hair grow out. She never had the chance to do it before (since she was afraid a certain boy would pay attention to her for it; she did want that but at the same time really didn't), but now, with the blond gone, she thought it best to have the pleasure of doing this first time thing. It was about as long as her friend Sakura's, who also said she'd be growing out her hair, but it had hardly started yet.

Her feet were already starting to weaken as she took one difficult step after the other. The sun was its burning highest peak over Hinata's head. It was worse still since she just realized that she was barely half way through the trail. She sighed aggravatingly at herself, wishing she came earlier. She heaved a breath, sweat trickling down her face. She almost started to wobble from side to side. How fragile she was. Yes, she should of came earlier, but earlier was one of those important clan meetings that her father never wanted her to come to but it was required of her to anyway, being heiress and all. Plus, she had already promised herself to take these gruesome walks every morning all this week. To make things even worse for the poor girl, she forgot to bring water with her. She trudged on and on, her mouth open and vision blurring from the sweat dripping over her eyelids.

"Hey, you're not gonna have a heartattack or something are you, hmmm?"

Hinata perked her head up, immediately straightening her position, going red from the possible embarrassment of this stranger seeing her walk like this. She saw a young man sitting on a bench a few feet up the road, staring at her with a furrowed brow. He messed with something in his hand as he looked her up and down with his one blue eye. The other was covered by his long blond hair tied into a very low ponytail in the back. Hinata blinked slowly at him.

"Well, are you, hmmm? I'm not taking you to the hospital if you do," the stranger said.

"Wh-Wha?" Hinata asked.

"Just sit down, hmmm. You look like a zombie..." Hinata did as told, right next to him on the bench. "...and why the hell didn't you bring water, hmmm? Today's the hottest day of the year."

"I...I forgot..." she muttered.

"A very small yet very stupid mistake, hmmm," the man commented.

"I know..." she said sadly, looking down at her knees. The man glanced at her, the next moment sighing pitifully.

"You know what...take my water. Here," he reached from inside his cloak and tossed her a bottle of water. She nearly missed it, taking it to herself as she felt how refreshingly ice-cool it was from the condensation. "I already drank from it though, so if you're one of those germophobics I suggest you put it above your li-" Hinata ripped open the tiny cap and chugged it down. The blond rolled his eyes at her. "I guess you're not one of those, hmmm..."

When Hinata realized how rudely she was drinking from a stranger's kindly given water, she immediately stopped drinking and gave it back to him.

"I-I'm sorry about that! I almost drank all of it! I was just really thirsty, and I didn't reali-"

"Nah, it's fine. Don't worry too much about it, hmmm. I have another smaller reserve it here...somewhere...hmmm..." he put the bottle back in his cloak. Wait a minute. Hinata looked at his cloak more carefully...it was black? Entirely black? Well, besides from the little red cloud designs, but still! Doesn't he know that black clothes attract heat, and yet he's still not sweating like crazy? And what was with the line scratched through his village symbol of his headband? Probably just an accident during battle, but it seemed to be something else... Hinata started to ponder over all of this, staring into space, which was at his chest, which he noticed.

"Eh...are you okay, hmmm? First it was the zombie thing and now you're staring at my body, hmmm..." Hinata went completely red once she heard this and snapped back into reality. She turned her head away.

"I-I'm sorry! I-I-I-"

"Geez, so apologetic,hmmm. Again. It's fine. I didn't mean anything creepy when I said that..."

"Oh..okay..." she trailed. "I can't help that...um...what's your name? I-I...my name's Hinata..." she introduced. The man looked her in the eye rather boringly.

"Deidara, hmmm," he replied. "Anyway, why is such a trembly little girl such as yourself walking so far out, hmmm?"

"Oh, um...I'm taking a little walk..."

"Just a "little" walk? You're nearly ten miles from the village, Hinata, hmmm..."

"I know, but that's not much to most ninja..." she smiled weakly. Deidara arched a brow.

"You're a ninja, hmmm?" he asked. He looked to see a headband tied loosely around her neck. Yep, she was right. "You don't seem like the kind to be a kunoichi. You're very...motherly, hmmm, if I might say," Deidara said, satisfied with his choice of words.

"Yeah, I guess...but it's a long story..." Hinata subconsciously rubbed her arm. Deidara wondered over the possibilities of why this sweet little flower would ever want to take on a career and deadly as the way of the shinobi. He thought over it during their silence after talking, the both of them just sitting there. All he could think of was that she was forced to...wait, hold on. Deidara leaned forward in his seat, looking a her clear, pupiless eyes. Of course! She was a Hyuuga. And, seeing from her forehead which was wide in view from her hair being brushed from it, she was in this "main branch" since there wasn't any cage bird doo-hickey or whatever it was... Deidara smiled slyly at himself. The girl was lucky Deidara was off duty.

He focused back to why she was a shinobi...well, she must have been somewhat forced to be a ninja, being that the main branch were the most elite clan members in all of the Land of Fire, as he heard. Yeah, that had to be it...he looked at her, noticing that she was looking rather sadly at herself, almost hurt.

"What's wrong, hmmm?" he asked, not caring if a person whom he had known for hardly half an hour didn't trust him enough to share anything yet. She looked up at him, and then back down.

"Nothing..." she answered.

"Liar, hmmm. Don't be afraid to tell me. It's not like anyone who I might tell will care what a stranger told me, hmmm, he said, budging a little closer to her when she wasn't paying attention.

"Um...well..." she turned in her seat to face him, blushing as she looked down. Deidara couldn't really tell if she was blushing at a thought or at him, but seeing as to how close she was to him, blushing (at possibly him) too, made a tint of red rarely appear on his face.

"...what?" he asked.

"You see...I was just thinking about a...good friend of mine...you remind me...a lot of him..."

Wait, _him_? Crap. She had a boyfriend. But wait again, he _could _just be a friend, or maybe he was an ex...Deidara waited to see which was so.

"...and...he left the village...a few months ago...to train...and...he won't be back...for two years...so...I miss him...a lot..." she looked like she was about to cry. Crap! It _was _her boyfriend! Double crap! He was just about to make his move on her but decided against it now...what? Akatsuki aren't allowed to hit on pretty strangers, despite them being an enemy? I think not.

"Oh..." he said, shifting in his seat from her.

"I...really, really do..." he looked at her again when her voice sounded cracked. Deidara inwardly sighed. Hinata resisted the urge to cry in front of Deidara, doing so successfully. When she calmed herself, Deidara faced her again;

"So...you say I'm, a lot like him, hmmm?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah..."

"How so?"

Hinata rummaged through her the pouch on her side. Deidara leaned to try and look over her shoulder, swiftly returning to proper position when she pulled out the item and turned to him. She handed it to him. Deidara carefully took it (as in tried to hide the mouth on his hand by making it look like a wrinkle in his palm), cupping his hand. It was a picture, a pretty old and dusty one. It was a class photo of a bunch of seven year olds, it looked like. Hinata leaned closer to him, pointing at one really smiley, mischievous-looking blond blue-eyed kid in the very front of the children (the sensei looking annoyed at him)

"Th-That one...is him...Na-Naruto-kun..." she said.

"Naruto?" he asked.

"Y-Yes..."

"Weird name, hmmm..." Deidara scanned the rest of the picture. "You're pretty adorable here..." he said, pointing at the only Hyuuga in the picture at the very back row. "...your hair is shorter though, hmmm..."

"Yeah...and thank you..." she blushed. "I've de-decided to grow out my hair. I never did it before, so now-"

"And this would probably make Naruto pay more attention to you too, since you've never done it before, hmmm," Deidara finished, Hinata blushed harder, and this wasn't at all from the sun.

"I see..." Deidara gave the picture back to Hinata. Hinata put it away, staring sadly down at herself again. Once again, Deidara glanced at her, and for a long time.

"You really do miss him, hmmm..." he stated softly, eyes eased. Hinata nodded. Deidara looked down at himself. He looked at his other hand, this whole time it was playing with the clay he still had from before Hinata had come along. He thought a moment. He got up, letting his hand munch up the clay as he did. Hinata watched him as he stood a few feet away from him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Just watch, hmmm..." Deidara brought a little figure forth from his palm, throwing it to the ground in front of Hinata, the next moment, said object being consumed in a poof. Hinata watched as it clearly gasping loudly at what she saw. The little boy grinned widely at her, tilting his head to the side. His shoulders vibrated, giving the impression that he was laughing, but, he being made of clay, he produced no sound. Hinata covered her mouth.

"D-Deidara! How..why..." Deidara put his palm out.

"Just enjoy him, hmmm. I don't know what he looks like now, but...he looks a lot like him from the picture, right?"

"Perfectly..." she breathed. Not only did he look exactly like Naruto, but he had color added to him too, as the photo did. The little clay Naruto, still grinning at her, stretched out his arms to her. Hinata, about to burst into tears, quickly embraced the small creation. He hugged her really tight. After the hug, the boy offered Hinata his hand, letting her stand up as she took it. Deidara simply watched as Hinata enjoyed her time with the little Naruto. He seemed to dance with her...weird. Deidara had just commanded it to be sweet to her, but he thought that this part was a little much. Oh well...after a few more minutes, the little Naruto suddenly ran back to Deidara, Deidara picking him up as he became smaller and smaller. He smushed him back into his original, soft clay form in his pouch. Hinata looked down sadly again. Deidara looked at her.

"Sorry, hmmm. That kind of thing takes up a lot of my chakra..." he explained.

"Oh...that's okay," she smiled at him. "Thanks for that. I couldn't thank you enough..."

"Don't worry about it, hmmm..." Deidara replied. Hinata looked at the sky.

"I think I should be going now..." she said. Strangely, this made Deidara's heart sink. He frowned.

"Oh. Well see ya then..." he started to walk back to the bench, until he heard light footsteps approach him. As soon as he turned around, Hinata hugged him tightly. Completely catching him off guard.

"Thank you...so much...I really do mean it...Deidara-kun..." she said quietly. He could feel her smiling. He smiled back.

"Really, no problem, hmmm..." he said. She let go of him.

"Goodbye then," she said, and with that, the Hyuuga ran off down the path again. Deidara sighed, going back to his bench.

_Pity she has a boyfriend...she was very pretty... _he thought sadly, leaning back in his seat as he closed his eyes. The area was actually just starting to get cooler. Shadier too...more clouds were rolling in... A few moments passed in silence. Deidara sat up, reaching into his pouch again, his hand eating up some clay before he threw it at the spot next to him on the bench.

He stared straight ahead, even as the smoke cleared. He felt a dusty, mushy hand touch his. Deidara looked down at it, looking up to meet pupiless eyes next to him on the bench. The girl smiled at him

Deidara smiled back.

-:|:-

**A/N: This idea came to me today, actually, so, I immediately buckled down and began to type it, going along with it as I it was written. Ugh, no Deidara! That isn't her boyfriend, it's just a crush, a crush I tell you! T-T Oh well...I hope you enjoyed this :D I'll be updating my other DeiHinas soon...I suppose...I have big tests coming up so I really don't know X( Eh...**


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